Most of the time, instead of shredding carrots I use the left over pulp from making fresh carrot juice. Shredded carrots / carrot pulp, they’re interchangeable in this recipe. Sometimes I freeze the extra carrot pulp in 3 cup amounts – just for this recipe.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a bundt pan (or a 9x 13 cake pan, or two 8×8 baking pans) by buttering or oiling it. Wipe lightly with paper towel to remove any clumps of butter or puddles of oil. Lightly dust with flour, shaking out the excess. Set aside. *hint: my preferred pan is a large bundt pan. I like the look of the cake when I serve it.
Ingredients:
1 cup vegetable oil of your own choice 5 large eggs 1+1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup liquid: milk or kefir or juice 2 cups unbleached flour (can substitute 1 cup whole wheat flour if desired) 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp each nutmeg, allspice, ginger (if you don’t have one of these spices, don’t worry about it) 3 cups grated carrots (or carrot pulp left over from juicing) *optional: toasted nuts like almonds, walnuts and pecans chopped. Pumpkin seeds or raisins too.
In large mixing bowl, sift together: flour, baking soda and powder, with all spices. Set aside.
I like to stir the carrots into the dry ingredients till thoroughly incorporated, but you can also fold in at the end if you prefer.
In a separate bowl, beat the 5 eggs, add sugar and continue to beat till thoroughly combined. Add the 1/2 cup of liquid, and mix in to incorporate well.
When both bowls are prepared, pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and gently fold together till all are equally moistened. If you feel you need a little more moisture, go ahead and add a little more.
Pour batter into prepared baking pans (my favourite is a large bundt pan). If the pan is more than 2/3 full of batter, remove a few tablespoons of it to a smaller (prepared) pan and bake separately. This will prevent it from rising too much and overflowing your bundt pan.
Set in the centre of your heated oven and set the timer for 35 minutes. Start checking every five minutes after then. Depending on the size of pan you’re using, you can expect it to take between 45-60 minutes. The bundt pan takes the longest because it’s deeper. Don’t undercook. Test by lightly tapping with your finger. If the cake bounces back, test further with a toothpick. When it comes out clean, remove the cake from oven and set aside to cool about half an hour.
Lightly loosen with spatula then turn upside down onto serving plate. Allow to finish cooling before fully removing. *I leave the square or rectangle cakes in their pans to serve, only removing the cake in the bundt pan.
Icing: 1/3 cup butter – room temperature 1/2 cup cream cheese – room temperature 1 cup icing sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 3 T cream or milk *optional: toasted nuts like almonds, walnuts and pecans chopped. Pumpkin seeds too.
In medium bowl, beat butter and cream cheese on medium-high speed till completely smooth. (1 or 2 minutes) Gradually add icing sugar, then vanilla and cream – beating till fluffy. Lightly pour over top of the cake and smooth out with spatula. I like a drizzled look on the bundt cake. If you’d like it iced completely, double the recipe. Sprinkle chopped nuts over top of the icing.
Sometimes its simply a matter of looking OUTSIDE the proverbial box. This quick quiche loaded with protein and vegetables is eaten like a pizza. I call it QUICHE PIZZA, and it is a delicious, nutritious dinner that you hope to have leftovers of so you can eat it for lunch again tomorrow! It’s just as good cold.
This recipe serves four people with two eggs each. I use a family sized pie plate and two tortillas. If you want to make less in a smaller pie plate, just adjust accordingly. Shoot for two eggs per person, and the rest is up to you.
The vegetables: Use what you have on hand. I like to use chopped onions, red peppers, broccoli, mushrooms, and of course spinach. I add spinach to almost everything it seems. These are vegetables I always have on hand because I mostly use freeze dried vegetables – but if you have fresh out of your garden, AWESOME! Use those.
ingredients: 8 eggs 1 cup cottage cheese, beaten into the egg mixture 2 large tortillas seasoning salt of your choice assorted vegetables, suggested: diced red peppers, chopped onion, sliced mushrooms, broccoli flowerets, spinach shredded cheddar or blend of cheddar and pepper jack
directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat eggs till frothy Add cottage cheese and beat it into eggs till well blended Arrange tortillas in a large pie plate. Cut the 2nd one into half or even quarters to arrange in pie plate making sure all of the plate is covered. Pour egg mixture in. Assuming you’re using the same vegetables I use, begin by arranging about 1/2 – 3/4 cup mushroom slices in the bottom of the egg mixture. Sprinkle about 1/4 cup chopped onions on top of them. Sprinkle about 3/4 cup red pepper slices over top of the onions. Arrange small broccoli flowerets in some empty places between the red peppers. Sprinkle a layer of spinach on top of everything else. I put quite a bit on (about a cup of freeze dried spinach) If using freeze dried vegetables, use a fork to gently submerge all vegetables into the egg mixture so that they’re moistened by it. Season with salt and pepper. Add a layer of shredded cheese. Be generous. 1-2 cups.
Place into heated oven in the middle rack, and set the timer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes test the middle to see that it is no longer liquid – ‘jiggly’. If it needs a few more minutes, lower the heat to 325 and lay a sheet of aluminum over top to prevent the tortilla crust from over cooking.
Watch it carefully at this point so that you don’t over cook it. When the center is firm, remove from oven and let the ‘pizza’ rest on a rack for 10-15 minutes.
Remove from pan and cut into wedges as for a pizza. Serve. Enjoy. You can eat it with your hands, and it’s pizza so DO.
Here’s my Secret: When I make this quiche pizza (or anything similar to it), unless I have fresh garden vegetables, I use freeze dried vegetables. But not just any freeze dried vegetables. After trying many different brands over the years, I now use Thrive Life freeze dried vegetables. There’s a good reason for that, and its a very important one to me (actually a few good reasons, but I’ll tell you five of them).
1. Thrive Life guarantees that their produce is picked ripe (at the peak of what nature intended that fruit or vegetable to be), AND guarantees that in less than six hours from harvest (usually two to four hours), that produce is washed peeled, chopped and flash frozen! Locking in the colour, texture, taste and ALL the natural goodness. In that frozen state (-40 degrees Celsius), it is transferred to a facility where it has all the remaining moisture removed without it thawing. That’s the second step in the two-step process of freeze drying.
2. Thrive Life fruits and vegetables are as organic as you can get without them being ‘certified’ organic. They monitor the process of planting, growing, harvesting, freeze drying and packaging from beginning to end. It’s part of what they call their NUTRILOCK Guarantee and its something they take very seriously.
3. Because of this attention to detail, Thrive Life foods are the BEST in the world and that is no empty claim. They have always been the best, but as of the beginning of 2024, they are also the biggest freeze dried company in the world. They literally are “Fresher-than-Fresh”, or what we frequently refer to as ‘fresh’ – the produce in our grocery stores, which are picked green if possible and are subjected to long travel times to get to us – anything but ‘fresh’.
4. Thrive Life freeze dried food has a 25 year shelf life, making it the most dependable, shelf stable, nutritious food on the market – the perfect choice for anyone interested in emergency preparedness, and long term food storage. So that means I always have fruits and vegetables in the pantry, ready any time I might decide I’d like to have spinach in my homemade quiche, or cheese on a homemade quiche, or mangoes in our yogurt, or blueberries on top of cereal or . . . . . well, the list is endless. And its always there because once you open that can, you can count on it being perfectly good for about a year afterward.
5. The other important reason I use Thrive Life freeze dried food is the convenience. Those vegetables are already washed and chopped. I just sprinkle the onions from the can, distribute the sliced mushrooms or red peppers from the can, add a layer of spinach from the can. It’s quick and easy. And guess what else? They even have freeze dried eggs! I literally had this recipe ready to go into the oven in less that ten minutes. With zero mess!
There now you have it. My secret. How I do things. And make no mistake – I’m all about down home goodness, and doing things from scratch. These are not ‘processed foods’. These are CLEAN, WHOLE FOODS and nothing but. Making dinner from scratch still counts even when you’re using freeze dried food. Don’t let anyone tell you different.
I hope you’ll try this easy recipe for a great dinner, lunch or brunch. Whether you use garden fresh, freeze dried or a mixture of both as I do much of the time.
